![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Purports to be the confession of the outlaw Ned Kelly, whose name in his native Australia carries the sort of thrilling resonances that his contemporary Jesse James enjoys in the United States. ''True History of the Kelly Gang'' isn't merely a historical novel it's a fully imagined act of historical impersonation. Of a late-20th-century affability and insight beneath the 19th-century furnishings.Ĭarey's latest book is bolder and more challenging than anything he has attempted before. They are also, despite their period settings, intellectually modern novels reading them, one never loses the sense High and low life in ''Jack Maggs.'' These books are notable for a deft manipulation of mood, swaying between the fantastical and the realistic, the grotesque and the matter-of-fact, the seriousĪnd the playful, a medley that seems of a piece with Carey's satirical yet forgiving overview. His best work combines Victorian grandeur and Australian earthiness,įrom the tall tales of a 139-year-old con man in ''Illywhacker'' through the tragicomedy of gamblers and glass churches in ''Oscar and Lucinda'' to the Dickensian sweep of London First Chapter: 'True History of the Kelly Gang'Įter Carey, digging away at the past, is one of fiction's great treasure hunters.Peter Carey's new novel portrays a kinder, gentler Ned Kelly than the one of legend. ![]()
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